Well: Did the old Virus alive and kicking question. Who knows for sure, but after the drivel I wrote, which adds nothing to the scientific community, I added some pics. Being an artist on the side, I truly dig how the look. Enjoy!
WE ARE FIGHTING TO ELIMINATE THE "F" VIRUS FROM OUR REPORT CARDS!!!
Introduction
Living or Non-Living? At first glance, this seems to be a simple question to answer, but as scientist look to make these statements proclaiming what is alive, it is not always a clear and precise statement.
"Viruses straddle the definition of life. They lie somewhere
between supra molecular complexes and very simple biological entities. Viruses
contain some of the structures and exhibit some of the activities that are
common to organic life, but they are missing many of the others. In general,
viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased
within a protein capsule. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and
machinery which characterize 'life', including the biosynthetic machinery that
is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate it must infect
a suitable host cell" (MLER, 2009). By reading the statement above, the question becomes a more complex one
to answer.
Virus – Living or Non-Living?
There are many characteristics of life one must consider when
answering this question. Living things
are made up of basic units called cells, are based on a universal genetic code,
obtain and use materials and energy, grow and develop, reproduce, respond to
their environment, maintain a stable internal environment, and change over time
(Miller & Levine, 2008, pg. 17). By
knowing these key concepts in defining whether it is living or nor non-living,
the concept of a virus as an organism challenges the characteristics listed
above. Viruses do not respire, they do
not display irritability, and they do not grow or move. However, viruses do reproduce, and most
definitely replicate. They have the
adaptive ability to more than a single organism as a host, as well as not being
limited to a single species, genus or phylum of host. First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then
biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area
between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so
in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts
profoundly (Villarreal, L., 2004).
Conclusion
Viruses do not contain cells. They are not cells themselves; they are macromolecules which combine
themselves to form a pathogenic particle. They cannot produce energy: they can change, obtain, or lose energy from
hacking into a host cell to replicate. Viruses do not grow, move, or have measurable respiration. Viruses modulate their reproduction and life
cycle on the “stimuli” in the host cell.
I would not consider viruses to be classified as living
organisms. They are incapable of
“independent” reproduction and metabolism. In fact, the virus must infect a host’s cell for reproduction. In the growth period, the virus DNA tricks
the host cells into replicating their DNA – while they start to wreck the host
cell. Often very quickly, replication
spreads out into the host, attaching to host cells and repeating the
cycle. With this known, viruses are incapable
of reproducing outside of a host cell. Also noted is the fact that the majority of metabolism requires the
cellular machinery of its host to survive. Replication is the virus’ greatest argument in my mind to be classified
as a living organism, and the non-ability to reproduce outside of a host makes
them non-living. This determination is
made, noting that some parasites and endosymbionts are also unable to exist
independently.
The argument for a virus to be considered non-living gets
stronger when considering the higher forms of life characteristics that it
cannot perform or possess. There is also
an evolution that scientists can trace back. When biologist speak of viruses,
when present they refer to them as “active” – not alive, and when dead, they
are called “inactive”.
The web tools that I explored were the Prezi, GoogleDocs, Glogster, and VoiceThread. Prezi is a presentation tool very similar to PowerPoint but with a much more impressive end product! When your presentation is complete, viewers tour through your presentation very much like it’s a movie. Titles, video, songs, and information zoom in and out of the screen as you navigate the presentation. There is a slight learning curve involved in the use of this program as it does not navigate like programs that most people are used to working with, however there are tutorials for helping you get accustomed to Prezi’s unique format. The basic (public) version of Prezi is free, however you will have the Prezi watermark in the background of all of your presentations. For $59 a year you can get the “Enjoy” version of Prezi. There is also a student/teacher version of Prezi called “EduEnjoy” which is just like the “Enjoy version, however this version is free! Prezi presentations are able to be accessed online from any computer that has Internet access. For an additional fee, you can get offline access to Prezi. http://prezi.com/
GoogleDocs seems like a great program if you are creating or needing to present documents or slideshows from multiple locations. You can create, edit, and present your documents from GoogleDocs and save them in your virtual file folder. This makes the documents accessible from any computer that has Internet access. GoogleDocs is very user friendly as it is formatted similarly to the Microsoft programs. GoogleDocs is free to use; all you need is a Google account. The only thing that I didn’t really like about this tool is that it doesn’t allow all of the creativity that the actual Microsoft programs offer. There is no WordArt or animations that can be added to your documents so whatever you create must be very simplistic. https://docs.google.com/#all
Glogster is a tool that allows you to make interactive posters. I reviewed a few of the posters that were already created and I didn’t see how this was any more than a way to present written information to music. It seemed like most of the posters that I viewed were made by teenagers professing their hurt or love toward someone to the latest top 40 hits. I didn’t really see any interactive components to these posters; it was really just looking at the poster and listening to music. The host website for Webtools4u2use has a Glog as their title page. Their Glog allows you to zoom in on pictures and activate links; demonstrating the interactive components. I think a Glog would be good to use to combine several different types of media that are already in existence or that were created using other tools. Some of the educational Glogs were beautifully made and would be an excellent way to incorporate Webquests into your classroom. There is no cost to Glogster basic and you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection. For a premium version of Glogster, the cost is $99 per year. There is a specific website for Glogster EDU: http://edu.glogster.com/
VoiceThread is a tool that combines voice recordings, slide presentations, blog
posting, documents, and most other forms of media all into one location. What’s
really unique about VoiceThread is that you can leave comments or add content
to someone’s VoiceThread in the form of written comments or voice comments. It
is a great tool for collaborative work. There are tutorials available for using
this tool and I would assume that you have to be pretty familiar with all
different platforms of media to take full advantage of this web tool. For a
single educator account with no student accounts this tool is free. If you
would like to set your classroom up using VoiceThread the cost is $60 per year.
I think this tool would be great for students who are collaborating on class
projects. The VoiceThread presentations are able to be shared and worked on by
multiple students who have access to the Internet. http://voicethread.com/
